Friday 29 May 2009

ARCHER'S PEERAGE (2nd of 2 parts) CONCLUSION

Surprise, surprise. I received the full report from the KPMG at the end of their investigation. Listed on it were all of the people who took part in it without exception. The name of their group or organisation and what they had done or raised. Well, what do you know, there was no mention at all of BAFK. Not a dickie bird. Now why, I wonder, would that be. Because it was to be reported on by the media wasn't it. How could they mention us. Questions would be asked. It would show that out of everyone, we were by far the largest relief aid organisation for the Kurds in the country. No, once again, we were treated as though we didn't exist.

Everything had slotted into place. Throughout our work, the people who ran the show in their own areas were constantly telephoning me asking why the media kept reporting that the British public were doing nothing. They KNEW we were. They rang me daily for updates! I was, and still am, so frustrated. How dare that b***** government be corrupt enough to hide the enormous work that the people of Britain did? These were the people who had elected them into power in the first place and they were treated as nothing's just so that a smug, little man with very deep pockets and whose whole life has been about "him" could stamp his feet throw out his dummy and demand a peerage. Is it little wonder that we now have so little disregard for the so called Honour's list anymore.

When the cash for peerages investigation was launched I had dealings with that team also. Great interest was taken and then eventually after 2 years nothing. There is something very strange about this whole affair. You may wonder why I am still hounding that man after so many years. It is because I let down the people who did that work. It is my fault that everything they did was unrecognised. None of them wanted rewards, titles or glory. All they wanted was for people to stop pretending they weren't doing anything. They all wanted to know why Archer was deemed so important to John Major that he had to go to such lengths to cover up their work and pretend he was the hero.

Do you know what scares me most about this? If a Prime Minister and his government on his orders can go to such lengths to lie and cover up something such as this, what the heck are they capable of doing about something serious. Makes one shudder doesn't it?
There is so very much more I could tell you, but the whole object of this was to get the story out into the general public.Let them know the truth about his peerage. When it was proved he raised not a penny, why was he not stripped of the title? They tried to keep this quiet and now, thanks to Blogger, Twitter, Digital Spy and others, I have had a chance to let those of you who are interested know the truth. Thank you to them.

This is one way they couldn't stop me. Hopefully, word will now spread by all of you who are as disgusted as I am. I leave it to you to decide if you want this story to spread. I have done what I have wanted to for years. I have managed, at last, to let some of the country know what a wonderful and truly outstanding thing we British did. Only a handful of the group know the extent of our achievement. Even those involved have been unaware for all of these years what they did. To all of you I thank you for your unstinting generosity and time. I know many of you struggled yourselves in your lives for many reasons and yet still gave of yourselves in the most unselfish and generous way.

I apologise unreservedly to each and every one of those good and generous people for not managing to have their work recognised. I tried, I really tried and for some of you now it is too late to see I have managed in a very small way to do it at last. I am sorry that all you had at the helm was me. If you had a celebrity heading it this would not have happened to you. I have to accept now that Jeffrey Archer (who will always be MR Archer to me) is being very protected by the powers that be for some strange reason. There must be more to it than friendship don't you think? At least we all know what we did. We know that we managed to maybe save a lot of lives and that, for us, is what it was all about. More to the point, we can stand in front of God (or whatever your belief is) and not be ashamed.

Thank you for taking the time to read this. For those of you who have supported my story I thank you. I truly don't mind any comments. I am made of pretty tough stuff theses days, but please, don't ever accuse me again of wanting glory. There is only one person who has done that in this whole story and we know who he is don't we. This for me is the end. I know I have been a pain in that man's side for all of these years and now I have done what I wanted to do, and what they wanted to prevent, I got the word out there. The rest is up to you. Many thanks,

God Bless,

Lorraine Goodrich

DON'T EVER UNDERESTIMATE AN ORDINARY HOUSEWIFE AGAIN MR ARCHER

ARCHER'S PEERAGE - PART 4 (one of 2 parts)

Before I start this final part of the story may I reiterate something I mentioned earlier. This is NOT about me. I did state that but have had some criticism and comments that if you do good works they should be done quietly. I couldn't agree more. However, what the British did was not a small thing and SHOULD be recognised. Once again, it is NOT MY NAME I want known or recognised it is BRITISH AID FOR THE KURDS. And to those who complain about that. Why shouldn't they have recognition. £200,000,000 is a heck of an achievement. Besides, if you remember, I said the only reward I wanted was Archer to be stripped of his title.

I accept all comments and am grateful for them, but I get upset if people think this is about me, because it isn't. If you think I'm after glory I'm not. I had all of that 17 years ago in other ways and don't need it thank you. If you recall, I tried to get someone else to pretend she was me. So the self glory I can't be accused of. Not letting it go and being obsessed by it - yes, I stand guilty as accused. Besides, there is more to it than I am prepared to tell you as it is private, so really, you shouldn't judge without the whole facts. Now that's out of the way, let's continue.

The people who took part in the KPMG investigation into the missing money that Archer alleged to have raised, were people involved in Kurdish relief in some way or another. I have a full report of that investigation, not just the bits released for publication. I also have the full transcript of my interview with them. I went armed with documentation and letters from Government along with lists and letters showing what exactly it was that we had done and sent to the Kurds.

Up to this point, I was under the impression that what we had raised was possibly around the £10-20 million mark. I thought even that was excessive. It turned out to be a gross underestimation. During the interview, government figures showed estimated costs of certain items. It was only then that we realised that at the very minimum, based on those government figures, we had in fact raised over £200,000,000 pounds. I even asked them if that figure was correct and they unhesitatingly said yes it was. How shocked was I.

In the full report the figures were given about Archer's claims. It turned out that he did nothing. All monies talked of and claimed by him as his work were complete and utter lies which John Major had actually encouraged. Money had been given by our government and other governments for the Kurdish people, but long before Archer was even aware there was an appeal going on. John Major took it upon himself to accredit Archer with it.

The BBC did a programme about him and his peerage and in it they stated that Archer had befriended Major and had asked for a title. What for though. If he was to be given one for anything he did with the Conservative party it would have stated that's what it was for. Nobody wanted him though and the request for a peerage, from what I have read, had already been turned down twice. It was only if they could find a "cause" for him that no one could then object. There was talk at sometime of great amounts of money that Archer was alleged to have given the Tories out of his own pocket. Whether this was true I can't possibly say, I do know though, that his and John Major's claims are completely fabricated.

It was luck of the draw for them both, that at the time he was asking and they were looking, I came along. A little housewife from Devon who nobody knew. I wasn't a celebrity who was leading a group, I was an unknown entity who could be hidden. Problem was, I wouldn't go away. BAFK was huge and because of that, it would appear that the media had to be told there was to be a news blackout on our activities. This was questioned in Parliament.

When I first formed BAFK I was interviewed on local television and was asked what made me do it. I gave an answer which Archer repeated almost word for word a month later when he was asked the same question. He couldn't even answer that honestly or originally.

I intend finishing this this evening but as it is longer than the others, shall publish what I have written up till now. The conclusion to follow very shortly.